IT in Oz
by elledottore
Summary: The Wicked Witch of the West claims she's not afraid of anything. But how will she handle a shapeshifting demon that feeds off fear living in her castle? AU, Fiyeraba.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

King Marillot and Queen Baxiana of the Arjikiis were, quite frankly, exhausted. Their eight year old son, Yasho, regarded the castle of Ardron Iir as his own personal playground and laboratory, with his various toys and "science experiments" strewn all over the place. And the royal couple's elder son, Fiyero, was already becoming a juvenile delinquent at the age of eleven: putting pins on teachers' chairs, putting snakes on girls' desks … In fact, he had just gotten expelled from a boarding school in the Shale Shallows for almost burning down the school cafeteria while roasting candy clouds one night with his friends. But Marillot and Baxiana loved their firstborn son and heir very much, and were worried that a stern punishment would only lead to more bad behavior. So instead, they decided to take both boys to the family's other castle, Kiamo Ko, for the summer.

Neither Fiyero nor Yasho had ever been to Kiamo Ko, and Marillot and Baxiana hadn't been there since the death and funeral of Marillot's father many years before. It had used to be the main home of the Arjiki royal family, but Marillot's great grandfather had taken a serious dislike to the place, and it was reduced to a vacation home. Nevertheless, on the carriage ride there, both young princes were literally squirming with anticipation.

"Daddy, is there baking powder and vinegar in the kitchen?" Yasho asked excitedly. "I wanna make a chemical reaction!"

"I think that can be arranged," Marillot said with a small chuckle. "If we don't have any, we can send for some."

Yasho beamed, and was very happy until Fiyero whispered in his ear, "You know, Yash, I bet there are spooks in Kiamo Ko. And I bet Grandpa's ghost still haunts the royal chambers, waiting till you're alone so he can pop out and say, 'BOO!'"

Yasho shrieked, and Baxiana said gently but reproachfully, "Fiyero! Don't scare your brother."

"Aw, Mom, I was just having a little fun," Fiyero whined defensively. And he really was. Fiyero cared for his brother so much that later in his life when he first saw his college crush taking care of her sister, it caused him a twinge of pain. He admired Yasho for his intelligence, as he believed that he himself possessed none, and he would have given his younger brother the claim to the Arjiki throne the moment Yasho asked.

The royal family arrived at Kiamo Ko that evening, and their cook made a fine dinner for them, after which all four of them retired to bed. The next day, it was raining, but Fiyero still insisted on taking his horse, Monu, out for a ride around the castle. Yasho stayed inside and spent most of the day in the kitchen, experimenting with all the spices and seeing what tasty combinations he could make. At the end of the day, Yasho was tired and content. Fiyero was tired and sick.

Over the next few days, Fiyero's cold was so severe, it landed him in bed. To be sure, he was far from death's door, and Marillot and Baxiana secretly thought that this served him right. Nature was punishing their son for them. But for Yasho, who didn't really care about what a delinquent his brother was, Fiyero's cold meant the loss of a playmate. The Tigulaar brothers weren't exactly inseparable, but they did enjoy each other's company, so when Fiyero was away at boarding school, or in this case, sick, it caused Yasho a significant amount of boredom. So, on about the third day of Fiyero's cold, Yasho snuck into his older brother's room.

"Fiyero?" Yasho asked hesitantly. "You awake?"

"Yeah," Fiyero answered hoarsely. "Come on in. How'd you get past Mom and Dad?"

"They're having tea in the Solar. They're talking about some political crap." The brothers shared a grin; Fiyero had taught Yasho that word. Then, Yasho thought to show Fiyero his latest contraption; a little cart made entirely with paper and drinking pipes. "I made this yesterday," he declared proudly. "'Cause you know the cart Mom and Dad got me broke last year, so I made my own!"

Fiyero carefully took the cart in his hand. "Wow. You made this all by yourself, with no help at all?"

Yasho nodded enthusiastically.

"You're a genius, bro. Except your cart is missing one thing."

"What's that?"

"Why, your name, of course!" Fiyero said in the loudest voice he could manage. "We gotta show off that you, Yasho Tigulaar, invented this thing." He grabbed a pen from his bedside table. "'Yasho Tigulaar.' There we go. And, don't you also need a way to pull your cart? Here, one of the servants left this string here for no reason." Fiyero punched a hole through the paper with his fingernail, threaded the string through, and tied a knot. "There. The Yasho Cart is ready to go. And hey, I have an idea!"

"What?" Yasho asked eagerly.

"Why don't you go around the castle and collect things in your cart? Then you can come back here and we can look at them together!"

"That sounds fun! I'll be back soon!" Fiyero smiled sleepily as his brother energetically ran out of the room. A nap until Yasho got back was in order …

Yasho ran through the halls of Kiamo Ko, thrillified that his cart could now go as fast as he could. He exited the royal apartments, and found himself in the library, where he came across an unusually tiny book that he could fit into his hand. Into the cart it went. He collected a ball from the billiard room, and a rock that had chipped off from the walls in the castle chapel. It was only when he neared the entrance to the dungeons that he remembered Fiyero's warning about their grandfather's ghost. What if it was lurking somewhere in the castle? Would it pop out and scare him? No, Grandpa Eto had been a nice man; he wouldn't do that.

Thinking about all this, Yasho didn't realize that he was standing on a little ramp, so he absentmindedly let go of the string. The cart rolled down the ramp, stopping at the door to the dungeons. But before Yasho could even move to get it, the door creaked open, and a white gloved hand reached down and grabbed the cart. The door opened wider to reveal a clown, much like the clowns Yasho had seen at a circus in the Emerald City, with a red nose, a painted white face, a colorful but faded suit, and balding red hair. It was only the clown's glowing yellow eyes that seemed strange to Yasho.

"Hiya, Yasho," the clown said. "What a nice cart! Would you like it back?"

"W-Who are you?" Yasho asked nervously. "My dad says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Well then, let's introduce ourselves, and be strangers no more. Your Highness, Prince Yasho Tigulaar of the Arjikiis, I am Pennywise, Pennywise the Dancing Clown! It's my duty to entertain all future kings and queens of the Arjikis." Yasho noticed that the clown's eyes were blue now. Had they really been yellow before?

"Well, I'm not a future king," Yasho said somewhat ruefully. "My big brother Fiyero is next in line."

Pennywise chuckled. "Oh, but he doesn't want it, does he? Noo! But you do! You're going to be king! King Yasho of the Arjikiis! How does that sound?"

"It sounds cool," Yasho admitted with a giggle. "But I'm not gonna be king for awhile anyway. I'm just a kid."

"True," Pennywise said. "So why don't we have some fun now? You know, the dungeons aren't as grim as you might think. I've got candyfloss and rides and all sorts of surprises down here! And balloons too!"  
"Do they float?"

"Oh, yes! They float! And you'll float too, Yasho!" But as soon as Yasho entered the dungeons, the clown's face changed into the most monstrous thing Yasho had seen in his life, and then Yasho saw no more.

The Arjikii royal family left, grieving and panicked, the next day. No one except some sentries lived in Kiamo Ko again, until twelve years later, when Elphaba Thropp, after losing everything and everyone she loved, made it her home.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Through eyes that were still partially blurred by tears, Elphaba looked around her new room at Kiamo Ko, and saw what a complete mess it was. Of course, it was a mess that she had created herself; once she had thrown the Grimmerie across the room, it seemed like the next natural thing to do would be to knock the stand over, and that only lead to a flower vase falling off its shelf due to the vibration. It shattered as soon as it hit the floor. Elphaba wasn't one for metaphors, but that vase seemed to be the perfect symbol for her life at the moment: formally shiny and flawless, but now destroyed and broken beyond repair. That thought made her overturn a large red velvet chair that was by the window. From there, the destruction was no longer conscious as she threw books, punched the wall until she made a dent, and broke one of the glass windows. When she broke the window, she cut her hand on the glass, and the physical pain, coupled with all the emotional pain she was feeling, made her scream like a wounded animal, and then finally sob uncontrollably for a full hour. Elphaba did not think she had wept that much since her mother's death.

But now she was all cried out, and it was time to clean up her mess. She picked up the pieces of the vase and put them in a nearby wastebasket. She righted all the furniture she had thrown around, and put the scattered books back on their shelves. Carefully, she took the rest of the broken glass out of the window and decided that particular window would be an open air window now. But she could do nothing about the dent in the wall, and she didn't feel like even touching the Grimmerie after it had betrayed her.

Just then, one of the Monkeys, named Duo according to what had been written on the cage he had been freed from, flew in and immediately noticed the cut on Elphaba's hand. He pointed to it and screeched quietly.

She smiled a little, appreciative of his concern. "It's just a little scratch, Duo, nothing to worry about. And it was kind of my own fault." _Just like everything else,_ she added in her mind.

But Duo flew off and then returned not long after with some bandages, determined to help his new mistress. He wiped the dried blood from her hand, and then wrapped it up in bandages, in a way that made Elphaba wonder if he had done this before.

"Thank you, Duo," she said when he was done. Then she suddenly thought of something else he could do. "Hey, Duo, if it's not too much trouble, could you go down to the kitchen and make me some hot cocoa?"

He nodded and immediately flew off, and Elphaba was sure that all of the Monkeys had a normal understanding; the Wizard had just robbed them of their ability to speak. That was good news. And it meant that she had less work to do.

While she waited for her hot cocoa, Elphaba decided to go downstairs to the guards' chambers to put the fear of, well … not God, but her, into them. If she had them at her disposal as well as her own powers, no one could even contemplate trying to take Kiamo Ko. Her days of worrying about rotting in Southstairs could be over for good.

But on her way to the guards' chambers, Elphaba came across a painting in one of the castle's walls. It was a painting depicting a family of four: a mother, a father, and two boys, who looked to be about eleven and nine. It only took a minute for Elphaba to recognize that the mother and father were Queen Baxiana and King Marillot. The nine year old was an unknown to her, but as soon as she saw the eleven year old boy's cheerful blue eyes, she had to turn away from the painting, because she knew those were the same blue eyes that had looked lovingly into hers just the night before. She couldn't even look at the king and queen anymore; she had deprived them of the only son they had left … She resolved to get one of the Monkeys to cover that painting up.

Elphaba entered the guards' chambers to find them all sitting around, talking, and playing cards. Her temper flared. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" she roared. That shut everyone up, save for a few nervous murmurs among the guards. "What if the Gale Force were ransacking this castle right now?! We all would be dead! Dead, like your prince."

At that, all the murmuring stopped, and the guards fell completely silent.

Elphaba nodded in confirmation. "Yes, Prince Fiyero is dead, murdered by our Wizard's unsated thirst for power. But he left this castle, and thus his command over you all, to me. You will patrol the castle from dawn to dusk, with a one hour break at noon for lunch. At night, you will take turns keeping watch. And if I ever come across any of you idling about during the day, there will be consequences. Am I being perfectly clear?"

"What kind of consequences?" one of the younger guards asked. As soon as the words left his lips, the young guard saw the Witch outstretch her arm in his direction, and then he felt like he was being stabbed in the nuts. He clutched his privates and cried out in pain.

"Something like that," she answered. "Let that be an example for all of you."

Another guard spoke up nervously. "If you please, Miss Witch, we don't know your name. What should we call you?"

Elphaba thought for a moment. She definitely wasn't going to be on a first name basis with these imbeciles, but "Miss Witch" wouldn't do either. But after only a minute, she came up with something fitting. "'Your Wickedness' will do. Alright, all of you, get to work! Kiamo Ko won't protect itself!"

With some mutterings of "Yes, Your Wickedness" from around the room, all the guards rose up and marched out of the room, chanting an old Arjikii war chant that Elphaba would have memorized by the time her stay at Kiamo Ko was over.

Elphaba returned to her room to find that Duo had not yet delivered her cocoa. Well, she suspected he had never made cocoa before, she decided to give him a little more time. But he had been so quick to get the bandages for her hand … But that was irrelevant; he just needed more time. He would come back soon.

But two hours later, Duo still had not returned. Elphaba was certain he had not intentionally disobeyed her; she knew he wouldn't do that. The only other possibilities were that either he was struggling to make it or he was in trouble. Either way, she had to go see what the issue was. By this point, the sun was setting, so the castle was darker as Elphaba made her way to the kitchen. But she felt as though the darkness was not caused by the setting sun, but by something in the castle, something besides herself, the Monkeys, and the guards. Some other entity watching them all … But she immediately dismissed this as crazy. She sounded like her father talking about the Unnamed God.

The kitchen was empty. The lights were on, and there was an overturned box of cocoa powder on one of the counters, with some of the cocoa powder spilling out onto the counter. Duo had been here … "Duo?" she called. "Are you in here, Duo?" No answer. She circled around the kitchen, looking under tables and counters, but the Monkey was nowhere to be seen.

She was about to give up on the kitchen and go search elsewhere in the castle when she turned to see the wall closest to the door. Her eyes widened and she let out a little gasp at what she saw, Duo's arm pinned to the wall, blood dripping down from where it had been lopped off, and a message written in Duo's blood: **TIME TO DIE, ELPHABA**.

Anger quickly took over fear. Elphaba was sure she knew exactly who was behind this. In a fury, she walked quickly back to the guards' chambers. They would be sorry for this little prank.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Yo! Celeno! It's your turn!"

Celeno groaned. "I got nothing to put down! Ozdamn!" He took a card from the deck, and the game moved on. "Are you sure we should be playing this? That Witch almost crushed Ianu's balls!"His comrade, Rebon, scoffed. "That Witch is all talk! There's absolutely no reason to be afraid of her. Remember how His Majesty used to check on us all the time when he lived here? Well, 'Her Wickedness' hasn't come down here all evening! She's probably forgotten all about us. Knave of flowers." He put a card down on the middle of the table.Of course, that was when the Witch burst through the door, causing Celeno and a few other guards to jump. It looked to Celeno like she was ready to murder them all. "Who did it?!" she demanded. "Tell me now and you might get off a little easier." Silence fell except for the Witch's rapid breathing, which eventually slowed down as she regained her energy. "Well? I'm waiting for an answer!"

General Uris spoke up nervously. "I-If you please, Your Wickedness, who did what?" But as soon as he had finished asking the question, he had to duck to avoid a painting flying off the wall and directly toward his head.

"You know what I mean!" the Witch shrieked. "Who vandalized the kitchen wall?! With a death threat against me, no less! And who murdered one of my Monkeys?! My death threat was written in his blood!"

General Uris gathered his courage once more. "Well, I'm terribly sorry, Your Wickedness, but we simply patrolled the castle this afternoon before coming back here for dinner. We saw nothing of your Monkeys."

The Witch chuckled sarcastically. "Huh, you don't remember? Well, let's see if a trip to the kitchen won't jog any of your memories." When none of the soldiers got up, she snapped, "You heard me! Let's move!"

So Celeno marched with his fellow soldiers down to the kitchen. He knew that neither him nor any of his comrades were responsible for the death of the Witch's Monkey, but unlike most of his comrades, he believed that a Monkey actually had been killed; the Witch wasn't simply crazy. He had been working at Kiamo Ko for five years, and over those five years, Celeno had seen some strange things happen. Every now and then, a soldier would disappear. About a year before, Celeno had been washing his hands when the water turned to blood. And of course, he had heard about the tragic but mysterious death of Prince Yasho. Maybe whatever killed the prince had now killed the Witch's Monkey …

Upon arriving in the kitchen, it immediately became apparent that were no Monkey remains or letters in blood on the walls. "With all due respect, Your Wickedness, there's nothing here," General Uris said.

The Witch stared at the wall in disbelief. "B-But it was right here! I saw it! One of you must have gotten rid of it! How dare you!"

"None of us were down here, Your Wickedness," General Uris said calmly. "I'm a man of my word, and I swear on the graves of both of our departed princes that my men were not responsible for whatever you may have seen."

Celeno was intrigued to see that the Witch's fury seemed to soften a bit at this. "But then who did it? Who killed Duo?"

"We don't know, Your Wickedness." To Celeno, General Uris sounded like he was trying to quell a demented person's delusions.

The Witch growled in frustration; she seemed to know that she was being humored. "I WILL find out who did this, and NONE OF YOU will be pleased when I do." And then she stormed out of the kitchen, cape flying.

Rebon hit Celeno lightly on the arm. "What a nutcase! What did His Highness see in her?"

Before Celeno had time to figure out how to respond to that without sounding crazy himself, General Uris commanded, "Alright men! Back upstairs! Let's go!" So they started marching, most of the men grumbling similar sentiments about the Witch's lack of sanity.

Celeno was the last one out of kitchen, so he turned off the lights. But as he took one last look around the kitchen, he held back a yell when he saw two glowing yellow eyes. When Celeno's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw that those eyes belonged to a clown sitting on one of the counters, holding the Monkey arm that the Witch was raving about so furiously. Celeno grew even more horrified when the clown smiled at him, waved at him with the Monkey arm, and then proceeded to eat the Monkey arm.

Celeno rushed out of the kitchen as fast as he could to catch up to the rest of his comrades. He fell back in line behind Rebon, still breathing heavily.

Rebon turned. "Ozdamn, Celeno, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I'm okay," Celeno replied. "I just killed the lights in the kitchen, that's all." He didn't dare tell Rebon about what he saw. He didn't have the nerve.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

About a month after the incident in the kitchen, Elphaba woke up feeling the most motivated she had felt since what she now referred to as "the Munchkinland affair." Though she still could not bear to think of Fiyero, she found that she could think of Nessa without having an urge to destroy the entire castle. Breakfast was actually quite pleasant as she remembered Nessa and herself as little girls, running around Colwin Grounds' large backyard in the summertime, and building snowmen in the wintertime. Unlike their father, Nessa never cared about what Elphaba looked like; once she became a teen, she did grow a little embarrassed by Elphaba's magic, but she had always figured that she would be a hypocrite to judge her sister for her appearance, and as a child it never even occurred to her. As she finished up her breakfast that morning, Elphaba remembered how much Nessa cared about looking fashionable, but not in a superficial way like Glinda. Nessa always dressed in a pretty yet nondescript manner, so as not to have her wardrobe become a topic of conversation in the media. In fact, the only article of Nessa's clothing the news ever mentioned was that fabulous pair of shoes that their father had gotten for her all those years ago. Elphaba know she had to stop moping and go after that stupid little brat who had walked off with those shoes. As Nessa's sister and next of kin, she felt she had a legal and moral right to the shoes …

Elphaba put her empty breakfast tray outside the door of her room for the Monkeys to collect and then sat down by her crystal ball. After a few clock ticks of concentration, it showed her exactly what she wanted to see: the girl and her two new friends, an animated scarecrow and Boq. _Ugh._ She knew that Boq hated her, but she didn't think he would sink so low to travel with this girl. _Then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised._ There was no way she could get the shoes with Boq around, at least not easily. But couldn't she make it easier? Just recently, she had found a recipe for a sleeping potion in the Grimmerie that did not require the victim to drink it. That would take care of Dorothy, and while Elphaba wasn't as good at weather magic as Madam Morrible, she could still manage to create a local rainstorm that could rust Boq. As for the Scarecrow, well, he didn't seem like much of a threat, and anyways, she could always burn him.

But first, she had to see if she could even make this potion. She opened the Grimmerie and looked over the recipe. It was pretty straightforward, and she was pretty sure she had all the ingredients. If it turned out that she didn't have something, she could always blackmail Mombi. She looked around her and was at first disappointed that she couldn't find anything, until she remembered that she had stashed a good amount of her supplies in the dungeons for safekeeping. _Well, if I don't go down there now, I won't feel motivated to do it later._ She reluctantly stood up and started making her way to the dungeons.

When she arrived at the second floor, Elphaba was pleased to see the soldiers dutifully making their rounds. As soon as he saw Elphaba, General Uris signaled his army to stop and then saluted her. "Your Wickedness, ma'am," he began. "This is our second round through the castle today. Nothing to report."

"Brilliant," she said. "Keep going."

He saluted her again. "Yes, Your Wickedness. Onward, men!" Elphaba, for a reason unknown to her, felt compelled to wait until she could no longer hear their chanting before she continued her descent.

It took some effort for her to open the heavy dungeon door, but once it was open, she was quick to grab the lantern hanging on the doorsill and go inside. Elphaba had never admitted this to anyone, but she was a little afraid of the dark. She always had been since childhood. She supposed her fear of the dark had carried on into her adulthood because she was also afraid of the unknown, afraid of what could happen if she could not clearly perceive her surroundings.

And that could not have been truer in the dungeons of Kiamo Ko. Though the lantern helped a little, she still couldn't see anything that would have been in her peripheral vision. Wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible, Elphaba made haste into the cell where she had stored her supplies. She scanned over her containers of herbs, tonics, and other magical materials that she had collected over the years. She became exasperated when she couldn't readily find what she was looking for. _Come on, they have to be here somewhere …_

"Fabala." Startled by the voice that came out of nowhere as well as the use of her family nickname, Elphaba turned around and dropped the lantern at what she saw. Her sister, now a month dead, stood about three feet in front of her, looking just as she had the day she died. _I'm going mad. Fuck, this is all finally starting to drive me insane._

Still, she could not stop herself from saying, "N-Nessa?"

"I miss you, Fabala," Nessa said. "I wanna be back at home. I wish I could have spent more time with you." Before Elphaba could even come up with a response to that, Nessa continued, "But you left me, didn't you? You chose to fuck that prince instead of saving me."

"Nessa!"

"You're my big sister; you're supposed to take care of me. You were supposed to save me!" At first Elphaba thought she was imagining it, but it soon became clear that Nessa's pretty face was beginning to decay before Elphaba's eyes. Nessa didn't seem to notice or care. "I was so scared that night. I had a meeting to go to, but the wind was so strong. That house came out of nowhere!"

"Nessa, I'm so sorry! I tried! I wanted to-…"

"Stay down here with me, Elphaba," Nessa interrupted. Suddenly, the voice that came out of Nessa's mouth was not her own, but a high pitched and yet distinctly masculine voice. "We all float down here. And you'll float too, Fabala! You'll float too, Fabala! YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!" Nessa's face was now completely devoid of skin, and out of the corner of Elphaba's eye, she saw a pair of yellow eyes at the other side of the cell.

Not wanting to find out who or what those eyes belonged to, Elphaba grabbed a bunch of random ingredients and rushed out of the dungeon. She slammed the door behind her, and collapsed on the floor. She knew she had not really seen her sister. Nessa could be spiteful, but not like that. But just what had she seen?


End file.
